


When Laundry Flies (or Drops)

by fuschia_romance



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, More like Mingyu being dumb, boys being dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24892726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuschia_romance/pseuds/fuschia_romance
Summary: Wonwoo keeps finding all of this laundry on his balcony. Well, enough is enough...(Or the weird Meanie courting ritual fic I thought of)
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu
Comments: 7
Kudos: 141





	When Laundry Flies (or Drops)

Wonwoo winced upon opening his vertical slatted curtains. Not from the bright sunshine. 

He sighed as he saw a striped trouser lying innocently over the railing and almost on his balcony's floor. 

Just when he wanted to access his balcony to breathe the clear morning air. 

He glared at the trouser; it can only mean the person from the unit above him decided to wash stuff, hang it to dry, and somehow it fell to his balcony. Now, Wonwoo's apartment building is not one of the fancy building. It is an old apartment building with only four levels, and he's occupying one unit on the second floor. 

This is not the first time Wonwoo saw something dangling from the unit above his. He walked home to their apartment building several times and saw various clothing hang to dry from time to time. 

Now, there are two options. 

First, Wonwoo can be a good neighbour. Pick it up, go all the way to the third-floor knock on that unit and give it back to that person. Even as he's imagining it: he's already exhausted from the effort he made in his head and from the future human interaction he must do for someone he didn't know. 

Or... 

He can just ignore it. 

No one needs to know whether Wonwoo accesses his balcony daily or not. 

Plus, his unit is on the second floor. Considering the first floor is a basement unit, it is not difficult to reach his balcony from the yard outside... if the person is of reasonable height. 

Wonwoo glared at the black pants with the ridiculous red vertical side stripes and decided to close the slatted curtains resolutely. 

*** 

That evening, after coming back late from the library, Wonwoo heard a noisy sound from the house across the street. It's no secret that one of the smaller fraternities from his campus decided to rent that house. As a result, Wonwoo can hear loud music and party sound almost every weekend. Way different from the much preferred quiet from last year. 

Wonwoo peeks from the balcony. It looks like the party is very much still alive, and this is Thursday. 

However, he noticed that the striped pants are absent from the balcony. 

He performs a small dance, which he dubbed as "introvert wins" dance. 

It's not that Wonwoo is a rude person. He's just terribly awkward and shy. Avoiding any kind of unwanted attention or human interaction is what he's best at. 

*** 

Several weeks after the 'pants incident,' Wonwoo almost forgot the existence of a neighbour who loves to manually wash and dry their articles of clothing in his building, until... 

Wonwoo opened his curtain, and he's about to slide open the glass door when he saw now a cashmere sweater lying on his balcony's floor. 

He was so ready to enjoy the morning's breeze with a cup of hot coffee. 

He sighed and about to close the curtain when he noticed one thing. 

The sweater somehow lies in the center of the balcony. Wonwoo observes and tries to calculate whether it will be reachable from the yard and conclude that it will not. 

He slides open the glass door. He picked up the blue cashmere sweater, which is really soft to the touch. He looks at the brand and scoffs in disbelief. The purple tag says _Ralph Lauren made in Italy_. Now, Jeon Wonwoo might be poor and does not purchase any branded stuff, but he knows it costs a lot. 

"Who in their right mind can afford this sweater but choose to live in this old rundown apartment?" he said to no one in particular. 

Wonwoo considered for a bit and decided to put the sweater on the corner of his balcony floor so it will be easier to grab. 

He walks back inside his apartment and hopes whoever picks the sweater, or the previous pants are the rightful owner and not a random passerby. 

This person is pretty dumb anyway to keep dropping these pieces of clothing, which is apparently costly. 

*** 

"Do you realize that your sweater has a brown streak at the back?" 

Mingyu turn his head quickly upon hearing that and shushing Minghao while the other is settling to a seat across him. 

"You are not supposed to announce that loudly," Mingyu said immediately, "Besides, it's not that noticeable." 

"It's not?" Minghao asked but raising one of his eyebrows. 

"It's not, you just have an eagle eye for this kind of thing," 

"What happen anyway?" Minghao asked before sipping his hot tea. 

"Well, you know I have been wanting to wear this sweater to watch the ballet performance at the art center today. Yet somehow, after washing them and hanging them to dry overnight. I can't find it this morning and turns out..." 

Minghao snorts, "You dropped them again?" 

Mingyu lets out this high-pitched cry, "The wind blew them, okay? It's not me who decided to drop them," 

"Didn't I tell you to buy the clothespins? You own a huge laundry drying rack, yet you have zero clothespins, but keep hand-washing your clothes," 

"The wind was powerful yesterday; I doubt delicate small clothespins can withstand them. Plus, I didn't hand-wash everything, just the fragile and expensive ones," Mingyu slurped his frappe sulkily, "As another fashion aficionado, you should have known that," 

"Welp, no, I don't. Because I choose to send them to the dry cleaners," Minghao grinned. 

*** 

Mingyu slide open the balcony's door to pick up his clothing to find it, not there again. He peeks to the balcony below, and he's correct. Two of his Ralph Lauren sweaters are there for the second time this week. 

"Aww, man..." 

The problem is, in his mind, Mingyu will not suffer from weird brown streaks or dirty spots on his expensive clothing. If the neighbour downstairs would be so kind as to pick-up the clothing. _Save my clean laundry, damn it!_

Seokmin, one of his friends who lives across the street, once mentioned to him that the boy who lives there notices the falling laundry. He saw how once the boy picked it up and decided to put it at the corner of the balcony floor. 

It's not Mingyu's fault that he loves branded outfits. In fact, he decided to move to this rundown-but-cheap apartment, so he can use most of the allowance sent by his parents to purchase them. He is quite a responsible person, too, in taking care of them. For example, he handles them with care and hand-wash them instead of using the machines. 

In this windy and cold weather, Mingyu prefers to keep using these soft cashmere sweaters for several days in a row. Hence, the amount of laundry he hangs and eventually fell to the balcony downstairs. 

If only his neighbour is decent enough to pick it up. Okay, he will not ask for this person to deliver it to his apartment, but can he pick it up and put it somewhere clean instead of the balcony's corner? 

Mingyu went outside and tried to reach for his Riviera Bear sweaters. Once again, it is put on the very corner so it will be accessible. Due to his tall stature, it is quite easy to do, but... 

Another brown spot – _dramatic gasp_ \- precisely on the bear's white pants! 

"Arggh," Mingyu has to re-wash them while praying to God, the spot will be gone without a trace. 

*** 

Wonwoo walked inside the apartment building. As he remembers that he has not checked his mailbox for several weeks. He decided to check it today. As he unlocks the mailbox, another person enters the building and stops behind him. 

Wonwoo collects the content of the mailbox. He checked them quickly since there is a bin near the mailbox where he can dump the AT&T or credit card advertisement that he will not need. 

After a while, he realises that the other person has not moved from behind him. As he looks at the other person, he notices another man. Probably his age and quite tall looking at him weirdly. 

Feeling self-conscious by noticing the intense stare, Wonwoo thinks he's in the way. The other person probably wants to check their mail too. He bows and quickly gathers all the envelopes, decided he can throw the useless letters in his unit's bin anyway. He locked the mailbox and ran to his apartment. 

*** 

Seokmin is in the middle of scanning his macro-economic notes as a last-minute effort of studying for a quiz he will have in the next 20-minutes when... 

"You didn't mention he is cute as fuck!" was the next thing he heard, as he feels the sudden bear hug from behind him. 

"Whatt," Seokmin managed to squeeze out in response. 

Mingyu let go of Seokmin's neck, "Oh, sorry," he said sheepishly. "I said... you didn't mention that the boy who lives in the unit below me is so adorable," 

"The laundry-dodger?" Seokmin looks at Mingyu, "You never met each other? How should I know?" 

"Whatever, the point is he is so cute," Mingyu sighs dreamily. 

"Oh, I haven't seen that silly face in a while," Seokmin said, "Will this be another episode of Mingyu's Huge Crush?" 

"Probably," 

"What's his name?" 

Mingyu visibly pouts at that. 

"That's the problem," Mingyu said, "The mailbox only put his family name," 

*** 

If his life is any other TV-show, it will be so easy to start the journey of getting to know your crush. The person lives in the same building with you for God's sake, and you know precisely where their unit is. 

However, Mingyu just realized it now that he never – ever saw the cute Jeon in the building. (He must dub him the cute Jeon because he is also friends with Jungkook and him: not cute). He jogs in the morning or evening and never saw the guy. He peeks from time to time to the balcony downstairs. One time, Seokmin even caught him suddenly sitting at his balcony during a windy day. Waiting to catch a glimpse of the cute guy, probably walking back home, exiting a bus or something. As long as it's not his boyfriend or girlfriend is dropping him off. 

It's been two weeks of waiting, watching and spying, Mingyu finally decided to do the next logical thing. 

*** 

Wonwoo opened the blind and sighed out loud. 

Another wild laundry appears. 

This time there are four of them, he counted two shirts and two pair of pants. 

This has happened much more frequently now. It seems just ignoring or putting them in the corner is no longer sufficient. 

The more he did that, the more wild laundry appears on his balcony, it seems. 

Wonwoo massages his temple. He wanted to enjoy the balcony and can't avoid the balcony for months just because of laundries. 

He slides open the door and finally decided he will collect them and go upstairs to throw them into some rich annoying guy's face. He noticed the amount of Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Balenciaga outfits by now. If he didn't know any better, Wonwoo might even guess this is some weird way to show off. 

As he picks up the black Balenciaga shirt, Wonwoo heard another splat. He then notices that another clothing fall while there is no wind blowing now. He immediately looks up and saw... 

  


_A hand throwing them from upstairs._

  


"What in the world..." Wonwoo muttered in disbelief. 

_Is that someone intentionally dropping their laundry?_

To affirm his crazy hypothesis, Wonwoo walks over the balcony and looks up. He saw a guy who's rustling with another wet t-shirt. 

"Excuse me," Wonwoo yells, "Did you just throw this red shirt? Or am I just imagining things early in the morning?" "GAH!" That guy yelps. Wonwoo now recognises him as the mailbox guy from the other day. 

As he yelps in surprise, unintentionally (?) the wet clothes slipped from his hand and fell to the ground. 

"Oh shit, that's a Givenchy white shirt!!" He yells in horror. 

Wonwoo squints at the sad wet clothes lying on the ground. Not even on his balcony. 

"Are you the owner of all of these expensive outfits strewn across my balcony?" Wonwoo yells again. He probably can justify his sudden boldness because he has not to enjoy his morning coffee. 

Wonwoo squints his eyes while looking up. He saw the other guy opening and closing his mouth, yet he didn't seem to say anything. 

Wonwoo picks up the recent one. "This one is still wet!" he pointed out the obvious fact. 

He decided to pick up everything in his hold and even the wet one in his other hand and marches outside his apartment, upstairs and knock on the 3A unit. Loudly. 

"Aww, come on, I know you're inside." After his knocking went unanswered for a minute. Unknown to Wonwoo, Kim Mingyu is spazzing inside because his poorly thought plan to get the attention of his crush went down the drain. 

Mingyu finally opens the door and peeks at the other guy. His crush gives him a look and scowls. But inside Mingyu's head, he can only squeal of how cute the other person looks even so early in the morning. 

"Do you mind moving?" 

Mingyu can only nod. Before he knows it, the other person charged inside his apartment and decided to throw all the clothing on top of his couch. 

"I don't know what is wrong with your washing machine or drying rack or... or is this intentionally your way of showing off your expensive items. But it must stop," Wonwoo almost screams, "I wanted to walk out my balcony in peace without any wild laundry appearing every day! It's your laundry, you need to start caring for them and not dropping them every now and then!" 

Wonwoo takes a deep breath. Finally, satisfied to let it out. 

Then he froze when he _realises_ what he just did. 

_Did he just yell at someone else's apartment so early in the morning?_

He turns around and finds the other guy looking at him with wide eyes. 

_Good job, Wonwoo. This will be the only human interaction you will ever have with this particularly good-looking neighbour._

"Oh my God, I'm sorry," Wonwoo started, "I - I am not, usually... mean like this," he muttered. 

"This is not how I imagine it to be at all," Mingyu finally said, hands palming his face. "But, whatever," he mumbled. 

He finally looked at Wonwoo, and just now, Wonwoo noticed how red his face is. 

"Uhm, hi, my name is Kim Mingyu – the owner of those outfits," Mingyu started, "I am really really sorry for the laundry, and the trouble. It was completely accidental," 

Wonwoo glares at him after that lame excuse. 

"I mean, it was! It really was accidents, until these... past few days, I guess," Mingyu honestly confessed. 

Now, they stand awkwardly across each other. 

"I, may I know your name?" 

"Why?" Wonwoo immediately looks suspicious. 

"Eh, so I can offer you coffee. Or cappuccino?" Mingyu gestures to the machine at his kitchen counter. 

Wonwoo's eyes widen at the machine and at the thought of having a warm (free) cappuccino. 

"Well..." 

PS: The sad Givenchy shirt lies forgotten outside for the next few hours.

*** 

_**One year later** _

"You know, I still can't get over it," Wonwoo asked from his side of the couch. "Can't you do something much more normal to get my attention?" His book laid open on his lap, while he's sitting comfortably with his legs on top of Mingyu's lap. A warm cappuccino served at Mingyu's living room coffee table. 

"And missed the chance to see you went all feisty mode at me?" Mingyu laughed, hands caressing his boyfriend's legs. 

"Am just saying, you can leave a note on my door, mailbox, or something," Wonwoo insists. 

Mingyu smiles and looks at his dear boyfriend. The one he falls in love with at first glance, cheesy as it might sound. 

"Would you respond to those, though?" 

It's Wonwoo's turn to laugh now, "Probably not," knowing his introverted self. "Or not as quickly as we know each other after the flying laundry," 

"And guess what," Mingyu continues while he put aside the book and pull Wonwoo in a hug. 

"You're not even the one who people make fun of whenever they heard the story of how we met," 

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the random pants that keep appearing on my balcony. But, my roommate and I chose to be indecent human beings and decided to let it sit there for four days straight until it disappears... And nope, no handsome stranger throwing laundry or knocking at our door yet.


End file.
